Client Interaction Fundamentals

Today we’re giving you a sneak peek inside our “Anatomy Of A $9,750 Website Build.” This will give you an opportunity to see actual lessons from the training we have available.

These previews will each feature an entire lesson from the training, including everything you’ll get when you sign up. We hope this will give you a good idea of how the training can help you in starting and building your own web design business.

How well do you interact with your clients? Are you understanding what they want and able to deliver? Do you have a formula for good communication?

In this post we want to discuss the basics on how to interact with your clients, which is the cornerstone on which your entire business is built. This is one lesson of a three-part course explaining everything you’ll need to know about interacting with clients, finding your first client, and conducting a client interview.

Client Interaction Fundamentals

In this lesson, we’re going to cover the fundamentals of interacting with clients. This consists of two elements:

How you position yourself with your prospective clients

How you interact with your prospective clients

Positioning yourself with prospective clients

This may be the most important part of this entire program, because it sets up everything that follows. Get this part right, and the parts that follow will flow smoothly and effortlessly. This set of courses is different than anything else out there, and understanding how it’s different will allow you to set yourself apart from all other designers.

Strategic Partner vs. Web Designer

To begin, you need to make a fundamental shift in how you view yourself, regardless of whether you have previous web design experience or not. Start to see yourself not as just a web designer, but as a strategic partner. This means that not only can you build great websites for your clients, but you can also help them grow their businesses.

One of the reasons we were able to land this $9,750 project was our positioning. We asked a lot of detailed questions about their business so we had a complete picture of where they were and where they wanted to go. Then we established in the very beginning that we offered a complete solution to their core problem – how to get more customers.

This immediately separated us from nearly all the competition. You will see exactly how this works in an upcoming lesson on “Interviewing Your Potential Client.” Our favorite part of this process is seeing business owners, who are skeptical at first, get excited about the possibilities of us helping them achieve their goals. That is the power of positioning yourself as a strategic partner.

We really can’t emphasize this point enough. Many of our students have told us they didn’t realize how different our training is, and how it sets them apart, until they began working with clients. We will provide all the details in future lessons, but for now, focus on changing your mindset from “web designer/developer” to “strategic partner”. Your clients will sense right away that what you have to offer is different than anything they’ve experienced before.

And remember, your clients will see you as you see yourself. Make it clear that you are committed to helping them use their website to grow their business, and they will be “all ears” when it comes to your input and recommendations.

Interacting with your prospective clients

The “win-win” approach

When working with prospects, you should always have a “win-win” perspective. Rather than viewing yourself as a salesperson, see yourself as a consultant instead. Your job is to understand your prospect’s needs, truly listen to their goals and concerns, and then craft a package of services that will help them achieve their vision.

Resource

One of the best books we’ve found on selling your services is Win-Win Selling from Wilson Learning Library.

This book explains how to approach your relationships with your clients as a consultant, rather than a salesperson. We’ve found that this approach works best, because it allows you to get to know your clients, ask what they’re looking for or what problem they need to solve, and then offer options for solving their problem.

And there’s another advantage to this approach: If during your initial talk you find that your client doesn’t need your services after all – or they’re not a good fit for your business – you can let them go before you invest too much time.

The four keys to successful client relationships

Every client relationship you have will be different. But following these four keys will put you in the best position for success:

1. Relate to your client. This helps you create a trusting relationship and enhances your credibility. If your potential client knows that you understand and care about what’s important to them, they will be more likely to open up and share their priorities. This is where you will find the best opportunities for working with them and helping them achieve their goals.

2. Discover your client’s needs by encouraging the client to share information and problems. When you understand their problems, goals and priorities, you’ll know what is important to them, and this will help you to structure your proposal and quote to better fit their needs.

3. Be an advocate for your clients. Make their priorities your priorities. Once you understand their priorities, you can then talk about your services and how they can solve their specific issues.

Example: Client Interaction

Let’s say your client’s main goal for their website is to network with their customers and build a community, but they’re concerned it will be too difficult (and time consuming) to learn everything they need to know.

Instead of saying:

Okay, a WordPress website with social media integration would be best for you. Ready to get started?

You would say something like this:

Okay, I can build you a website with a blog where you can write articles to your customers and they can comment back. This will get a dialog going, and I can show you how to post your own articles. It’s as easy as sending an email.

Also, I can add Twitter and Facebook to your website. Those are the most popular places where people are active and talking about companies. It’s important to get your name out there in these social networks. I can set up everything and show you how to use them.

It will take about two hours to teach you what you need to know, and you’ll need to spend at least one hour each week maintaining it.

Or I can offer you a complete package. I’ll set up and maintain everything so you don’t have to worry about it at all.

See how the second scenario takes their concerns and tells them exactly how you can solve them? It also uses words they’ll understand, and explains why you’re recommending these things.

This really boils down to features vs. benefits. Clients are sold on benefits, not features. So whenever you mention a feature – either in person or in writing – always include how it will benefit your client.

4. Support your client. This is where you ensure that your client benefits from what you provide them with – a website, a lead generating machine, a complete sales funnel, etc. – and then move on to other problems you can help them solve.

Buyers often suffer from what’s called “buyer’s remorse”, or regretting a purchase that they’ve made. But your clients won’t. After you make the sale, you should communicate with them to make sure you’ve addressed their needs and that they’re satisfied. At this point you can also listen for new problems or needs that might mean they’ll need you for future work.

If you follow this process, both you and your clients will benefit. Your clients will get what they really need with someone who really understands their needs. And you’ll have trusting relationships with clients that will be difficult for your competition to destroy.

Also, imagine the referrals you’ll get from treating your clients this way. When your clients truly trust you, they won’t have any issue referring their friends and associates to you.

This is just one of the lessons available in our “Anatomy Of A $9,750 Website Build.” We believe this is the most comprehensive web design training program on the market today. In addition to showing you how to build beautiful, feature-rich websites, you’ll also learn how to build and manage a successful web design business.

What Is Freelance Folder?

FreelanceFolder is a community for freelancers, entrepreneurs, work-at-home business owners, and web-workers. We strive to bring you the articles, information, and community you need to succeed. If there's anything specific you're looking for, please contact us to let us know!